Mike Gascoyne: Back and fighting //Former Toyota chief talks of the past and the future

Mike Gascoyne was doing a good job in the paddock for Toyota. He was the technical director for the Japanese team, but after several disagreements about the future direction of the team, he was unceremoniously fired. Gascoyne was given six months paid leave to ease the blow, and he's landed on his feet with the technical chief position at Spyker MF1.

Speaking about the year gone by, Gascoyne has said it definitely knocked his confidence.

Inevitably, it did, yes. If only for the fact that you want to achieve the targets that you set out to achieve.

- Mike Gascoyne

And speaking of his future in F1, Gascoyne admitted that he's not thinking long-term.

I don't want to do this forever, that's one thing I definitely know. I saw coming back here as an opportunity to have some fun and help this team with what I've made a career out of: turning places around. For us to get a podium would probably be bigger than Toyota getting a win, so there's very clearly something for us to aim at.

- Mike Gascoyne

Having joined Spyker in the closing months of 2006, Gascoyne has barely been involved in the design of the new car for the new season. But the team are apparently thinking about introducing a new model halfway through the coming season, and this would have Gascoyne-style improvements.

There's no point in changing too much at the moment. We're restructuring for the future - I'm not concentrating on Melbourne because I can't turn things around in that time frame.

- Mike Gascoyne

It'll be interesting to see what Gascoyne can do for the team, especially as they don't seem to have had that much design input so far. I always liked him at Toyota, so it's good to see him back, and with a team he can really get his teeth into.